It seems to me that they're always banging on about "losing weight", even when they're underweight. Why do we keep hearing stories about young girls with eating disorders or reading idiotic facebook statuses about "feeling guilty" after eating a chocolate bar, even though their body was probably heavily catabolic and borderline Auschwitz-mode.

And why do they think that "losing weight" automatically means "look good". Why do they always talk about dress sizes and other irrelevant numbers instead of getting under a ****ing bar and squatting. Have most women ever seen pictures of a woman who lifts?

Notice that she doesn't have deeply cut muscles or much bulk? But she's lean and tight. She looks athletic and sexy. She'd be awesome in bed as well, I'd wager, purely because her lifestyle suggests that she has high energy and squats give the hip-thrust an extra "umph". Yes, my friend.

What are the so-called alternative girls are going for? Well they either diet themselves to this size and cover a flabby physique with flattering clothes or they just sit around declaring weights "not for them" whilst paradoxically wishing they had a physique like the woman in the attachment pictures.

And don't get me started on crash diets (special k lulz). Anyone who still gets sucked in by them after they seen what happened the first time clearlyneeds help.

And generally, wanting to lose weight is part of a girl's hard drive in that brain of ours.

What makes it worse, is that girls don't realise that there are many different body types and figures and nobody can ever be exactly like, say, Victoria Beckham's figure.

I'm curvy, and no, not "I'm overweight/obese so I shall call myself curvy". I'm Kim-Kardashian-Curvy. And thanks to all this mania of trying to wear a certain type of clothing that's in fashion, or look slim because guys like it, I was depressed and yo-yo dieting for a good 2-3 years of my teens. Awful.

Lack of relevant education. I swear PE in schools should include this sort of thing. It's more useful to know what to do to improve your body image healthily than it is to know the rules of hockey

I think it's also tied to the images of people who use steroids (men and women) being shown as what happens when you lift weights. You can understand how people who aren't that into fitness so don't do stuff like hang around fitness forums think they could end up looking like Chyna circa 1998. That scares most women off- but again education

Media bombarding with images of stick thin women rather than healthy women. The women who are held up as hotness personified go on about being on a apple diet (or whatever it is this week). Again education

Gym culture. At least in my gym hardly any women go into the areas where there are weights over 10kg DBs. Even the DBs the women rarely touch the bottom half of the rack. Rooms full of big sweaty men who perv on them can't be appealing. While every other woman is on the treadmill so that must be the place to be. So education and guys not being pervs, which is again education

Obviously women are free to do what they want with their bodies. if they don't want to look the good (imo) sort of toned then their choice. But I think so many not knowing how to achieve their goals is a problem. The same thing applies to men to an extent but much less so

you could go even further into feminists analysis of sex as a social construct. In our culture, what is seem as feminine (in some sense of what's expected of women) isn't tied to having strength or other physical abilities. That has a lot of implications

The girls I've tried to get into lifting put on weight far, far more quickly than all the **** on TSR seem to think. They look pretty ****, to be quite honest. I don't recommend lifting to girls who want a more feminine figure. It won't do that for you. Or if you really want to then be VERY careful and think hard about what lifts to do. Men will encourage you to do whatever routines they're doing, claiming that it makes men more masculine and women more feminine, but it obviously can't work like that. It just makes men masculine and women masculine but more slowly.

(Original post by NB_ide)
The girls I've tried to get into lifting put on weight far, far more quickly than all the **** on TSR seem to think. They look pretty ****, to be quite honest. I don't recommend lifting to girls who want a more feminine figure. It won't do that for you. Or if you really want to then be VERY careful and think hard about what lifts to do. Men will encourage you to do whatever routines they're doing, claiming that it makes men more masculine and women more feminine, but it obviously can't work like that. It just makes men masculine and women masculine but more slowly.

Put muscular bodyweight on or just bodyweight? Given how hard it is for men to put on muscle I can't see women adding a lot quickly, unless you're trained some absolute genetic freaks.

If it's just bodyweight then it's their diet that sucks, not lifting.

I agree with you slightly though. I probably prefer a female physique that is more masculine than the average. I would wager similar thougts apply to most men who are into lifting. You look at serious BBing forums and guys like girls who are fairly muscular. It's the cult, innit.

I would like to start lifting. Admittedly I've not looked into it a lot, but it's something I'd like to do - I've never had a gym membership, and not been particularly fit consistently for the last couple years so it doesn't feel very 'on the cards' at the moment, but I reckon it would be great to do. Not sure where to go/who to ask etc. so I could do it right, and I wouldn't want to try and learn from Youtube videos or something.

(Original post by JongKey)
No offence to the girl but i would never want to look like that. Her upper body seems too masculine. I don't lift because i'd rather do cardio, it's a preference.

(Original post by SubAtomic)
Because many think they'll end up like this after a few pull ups and curls

Spoiler:

Show

But yeah the girl in your pics has lost her feminine arms. Quite a hench lady.

Skinny fat isn't feminine, imo.

She might not be the best example, because she seems to be an actual female bodybuilder, but I believe there is another category called "Women's Figure" where they can keep their feminine physique but still compete.
But the point is: lifting is pretty much the best way to get lean. And women somehow think starvation is.

She might not be the best example, because she seems to be an actual female bodybuilder, but I believe there is another category called "Women's Figure" where they can keep their feminine physique but still compete.
But the point is: lifting is pretty much the best way to get lean. And women somehow think starvation is.

I have to admit, i'm scared to start lifting because i don't want to bulk up. I'm uneducated on how to lift without bulking up too much so i think that's the problem with women and lifting nowadays.

I think another unstated issue here is the focus is looks. Lifting is good for you. Having muscle is healthy. So long as we aren't talking about extremes. I think training for the sake of looks is a problem for both men and women when it comes at the expense of training to be healthier.

I don't think that's just an issue of men judging women on looks, women do it to- to themselves and others. If you focus on looks, combine it with an idea that any muscle is masculine then you get women not lifting

Muscles don't look good on women, it just makes them look like a man. Most women want to lose a bit of weight ideally but not many want to that bad or they wouldnt eat chocolate or whatever. Except for people with eating disorders not many go down to an unhealthy weight.

(Original post by JongKey)
I have to admit, i'm scared to start lifting because i don't want to bulk up. I'm uneducated on how to lift without bulking up too much so i think that's the problem with women and lifting nowadays.

This is the main reason I think along with women's magazines spouting ridiculous advice and fad diets.

"I don't want to get too bulky" is a typical response (like who I quoted).

Honestly, it's hard enough for a man to gain a noticeable amount of muscle, women aren't suddenly going to turn into a bulk-a-saurus after a couple of weeks, even a couple of years, from lifting weights. Also there is an obsession over dress-sizes and weight as opposed to appearance/health hence why there are so many skinny-fat people out there.